‘You gave her no choice, then.’
‘That’s the part that bothers me, to be honest. It all feels a bit too much like blackmail.’
Sam rolled her eyes. ‘This isn’t a hotel, it’s a clinic. The one thing you’ve always asked of everyone is that they’re part of the community here. If we’re at the point where there’s only one option you’re prepared to accept, that’s because Laurie’s shut all the others down herself. If this doesn’t work, I don’t see what will.’
‘If it doesn’t then I’m out of ideas. I really will have to think about throwing her out.’
Sam smirked at him. ‘Of course you won’t. You don’t give up that easily, Ross.’
Nice to hear. Although he suspected that even Sam underestimated the extent of the problem. Laurie was tough, determined and it was almost impossible to read her. There was obviously something going on beneath that poker-faced exterior, but for the life of him he couldn’t think what, and Ross suspected that getting to the bottom of it was the one way to help her heal.
That made honesty his guiding principle. Laurie was a doctor and, even if only half of her reference was accurate, an exceptionally good one. There would be no skimming over facts that she wasn’t ready to hear, and it was apparent from their latest conversation that there would be no hiding his thinking behind anything. That was fine, but his growing fascination with her made everything challenging.
She was no less fascinating when he called into her room at the clinic to see when she’d be ready to move. Laurie was strikingly attractive, but didn’t have the kind of soft prettiness that some found so appealing. The set of her jaw was a little too determined, and the look in her eye a little too challenging. She was the kind of woman that Ross could admire endlessly.
And she was ferociously organised. Her bags were already packed and she was ready to go. When he reached for one of her suitcases she gave him a look that would have slain dragons and which sent tingles down his spine.
She fell into step next to him, wheeling both suitcases behind her, as they walked along the gravel path that led to the house. When Ross opened the main doors, she stepped into the entrance hall, looking around at the grand old staircase and the honey coloured oak panelling on the walls, which were in marked contrast to the clean lines and emphasis on light and space of the newer building that now housed the clinic.
‘This is a bit different!’
Ross nodded. ‘This is where the clinic started out.’
‘Hmm.’ She was taking in everything, the stained-glass panels in the doors, the flowers that Ross’s mother kept in the hallway. ‘When was that?’
‘Thirty-two years ago. I was four, and my mother came here and started the practice, expanding it to a small clinic. We lived in an apartment on one side of the house and the clinic was on the other.’
‘Thirty-six, then?’ Laurie’s half-smile told Ross that she was on a mission.
‘I’ll be thirty-six in a couple of months. September the fifth.’ He threw the extra information in just to let her know that she could ask whatever she wanted about him. His life was an open book. Apart from a few pages that had got stuck together, but that was a long time ago now...
‘And you were always destined to be a doctor? And come to work here?’
‘Not really. I went through the usual cornucopia of career ambitions but in the end I decided that what I saw every day, the kind of good that my mother was doing, was what I really wanted. We’d never intended that I should join the practice, but she was ill for a while and I came back to help out. I found that this was where I wanted to be after all.’
‘After all the time spent wanting to get away?’ There was a hard edge to her tone suddenly.
‘I wouldn’t put it quite like that. I suppose you sometimes need to distance yourself from something for a while to realise it’s what you really want. There’s something to be said for feeling you have a choice.’ Ross caught her gaze, and thought he saw a reaction in the fascinating depths of her eyes.
‘Choices are what we make for ourselves.’ She shrugged, looking around the hallway. ‘You live here, then?’
‘I have the apartment upstairs. My mother has the one downstairs, and the guest apartment is at the back.’ Ross began to walk towards the double doors that led to the single-storey extension, holding one side open for Laurie to manoeuvre her suitcases through.
‘You live on your own?’
‘Yes.’
‘No partner, then?’ She raised one eyebrow, as if that was difficult to believe.
Maybe these questions were intended to divert him from asking any of her. If she thought they’d make him baulk, she could think again.
‘No. You?’
She shook her head. ‘I travel light.’
‘Yes I can see that.’ He motioned towards the two large suitcases and she cracked a smile.
‘I travel light in all other respects.’